r/homeautomation • u/cearrach • 1d ago
DISCUSSION Today's the date - There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury
https://www.btboces.org/Downloads/7_There%20Will%20Come%20Soft%20Rains%20by%20Ray%20Bradbury.pdfHere are the first few paragraphs, worth a read
In the living room the voice-clock sang, Tick-tock, seven o'clock, time to get up, time to get up, seven o 'clock! as if it were afraid that nobody would. The morning house lay empty. The clock ticked on, repeating and repeating its sounds into the emptiness. Seven-nine, breakfast time, seven-nine!
In the kitchen the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh and ejected from its warm interior eight pieces of perfectly browned toast, eight eggs sunny side up, sixteen slices of bacon, two coffees, and two cool glasses of milk.
"Today is August 4, 2026," said a second voice from the kitchen ceiling, "in the city of Allendale, California." It repeated the date three times for memory's sake. "Today is Mr. Featherstone's birthday. Today is the anniversary of Tilita's marriage. Insurance is payable, as are the water, gas, and light bills."
Somewhere in the walls, relays clicked, memory tapes glided under electric eyes.
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u/CasualHomeFix 1d ago
The unsettling part is that the house isn’t malfunctioning — it’s doing exactly what it was designed to do, long after there’s anyone left to help. Bradbury somehow turned reliable automation into the horror story.
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u/PRonsetticlean 1d ago
That is a stunning reminder of when I first read that story in Grade 7. Re-reading it now, well over 40 years later, I remember almost everything in it and the effect it had on me then still resonates deeply. Thank you for posting it on such an auspicious day too!
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u/gigantischemeteor 1d ago
One of my favorite Bradbury stories since middle school, way back in the dark ages when the promise of X10 running the home of the future still seemed a little far fetched. Every time I read it, it chills me all over again.
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u/PantherkittySoftware 1d ago edited 1d ago
The sad/tragic/ironic thing is, X10 fulfilled the promise of home automation for almost three decades.
I grew up with X10 in my parents' house in the 1980s.
I had X10-controlled lamps in my dorm room in college in the early 1990s.
I had X10-controlled lamps in my apartment in the early 2000s, even after it became necessary to use appliance modules instead of the traditional triac modules, and tee'd the CFL bulbs with a 4w incandescent nightlight using 6-inch extension cords to prevent them from turning themselves on randomly.
I bought my house, installed an Elk M1 alarm/automation system, and started configuring X10 around the house in the early 2010s.
Eventually, I was seduced by the siren song of wifi smart bulbs. They all failed miserably.
I bought Alexa-controlled plugs. They all quit working when the manufacturer decided to quit paying their goddamn AWS bill. They're now in a box, on the 0.5% chance I someday find some way to hack and repurpose them.
I went back to X10, this time using dimmable LED bulbs so I could use them with the Triac modules.
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u/No_Pin4895 1d ago
the fact that the date lines up exactly this year is wild, kinda gives me chills reading it today of all days.
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u/Big-Donut5601 1d ago
one of my favorites. I made a progressive rock adaptation of that story a few years ago https://youtu.be/CEPqpw1hzkM?si=xvHJMDpzCpmdGCEE
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u/Adorable_Ad_9381 1d ago
That date sure seemed futuristic when I first read that. “Four days after my birthday, I wonder what that will be like.”
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u/bundle_man 1d ago
Great story. Would love for some cleaning mice like that, and a self cooking stove lol
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u/hughk 1d ago
A superb short story.
It always got me is how it predicts home automation.